


sketch it out

by kiyala



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Drawing, Jaegercon Bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-11
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-23 03:10:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/921315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiyala/pseuds/kiyala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt draws when he's trying to make sense of something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sketch it out

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my "Anteverse" square for [Jaegercon Bingo](http://jaegercon.tumblr.com/post/57225250646/).

Newt draws when he's trying to make sense of something. It's the reason he has books filled with sketches of the Kaiju; vague outlines from the news reports about Trespasser, growing increasingly detailed as he sees more pictures, as there are more camera crews daring to go out and capture footage of Kaiju attacks. He has the original sketches for his tattoos scattered through his books, drafted and redrawn and positioned around each other to find a way to fit them all on his arms and chest. 

When the Breach is closed and everyone is waiting for the helicopters to find Raleigh and Mako to bring them back, Newt goes back to his room and finds one of his sketchbooks and flips it open to the next blank page and grabs a pen. He starts with lines that arc across the page, scribbles that one by one, come together to make meaning. He wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to get out of his head when he'd started but he can see it forming in front of him now and it eases the pressure off his mind, helps him breathe and feel a little more clear-headed.

He doesn't look up when he hears his door open, knowing that it's Hermann even though he's never been in Newt's room before. They generally tend to avoid spending time with each other outside of the lab, but Newt knows that this is going to change now. A whole lot of things are going to change but he can't spare the time to think about any of that right now because he needs to draw. It's not that he ignores Hermann, but he doesn't acknowledge him either, head bowed over his sketchbook as he sits cross-legged on his bed. 

Hermann walks over, sitting down beside him, and looks down at what Newt is drawing. For a long moment, he doesn't say anything at all. Then, finally, he hums. "You have a keen eye for detail, Newton. I suppose that's because of all the scientific illustration you've done over the years."

"Actually," Newt says, glancing up briefly before he goes back to drawing, "I was drawing monsters way before I ever started doing biology."

"That doesn't surprise me at all." Hermann watches him for a while, comfortable to sit there on the edge of Newt's bed. "You're drawing the Anteverse."

"Just what I can remember," Newt replies, "which, honestly, isn't a lot."

Newt has the feeling that he'd learned more about Hermann than the Kaiju from the Drift, and as much as Hermann's memories are floating at the back of his mind too, he needs to get these images out of his head and onto paper, of the world on the other side of the Breach. Not because it's going to help them with their research—he doesn't even know how much research he's going to be doing any more—but because he needs to know. He needs to know as much as he can about the Kaiju and that includes their home world, it includes all the little details he can put into words, sketches, anything. 

"I remember a platform here," Hermann says, pointing at the paper. It jogs Newt's memory and he adds it in. 

"Right, yeah, and there was another one over here…"

They sit with each other for more than an hour, piecing together a picture of the Anteverse from their memories, and by the time they're done, Newt's head feels calm and quiet again.

"Thanks, Hermann," he says, and Hermann only smiles in reply and bumps their shoulders together. It's enough.


End file.
